By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated March 13, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Energy
Secretary Alfonso Cusi is seeking more investments in merchant power plants to
further spur competition in the electricity spot market.
The energy chief is encouraging
investors, particularly foreign, to put up new merchant plants, meaning those
power plants selling their output to the wholesale electricity spot market
(WESM).
“We want real investors willing to
take (on) the business and they will cater to the spot market with the intent
to, of course, later on being able to enter a contract,” he said.
Cusi said now is the time to invest
in merchant plants since the country has a strong growth trajectory and there
are more than enough plants coming in in the next couple of years.
He highlighted the country’s growing
population and gross domestic product (GDP) “so demand is really growing.”
“The only encouragement is they have
to believe in the Philippine economy…which is said to be the fastest growing in
the region. Any business man believing in that will be willing to be test,”
Cusi said.
Currently, 90 percent of the
country’s power supply is sourced from bilateral contracts between power
generators and distribution utilities.
This means only 10 percent of the
supply comes from the WESM.
The DOE will undertake a study to
raise WESM sourcing to 20-30 percent, Cusi said.
“We are looking at 20 to 30 percent
(from) merchant (plants),” he said. “As a secretary it’s very important for me
to have the PEMC working because of the policy we are implementing.”
PEMC, or Philippine Electricity
Market Corp., is the operator of WESM.
There are several merchant plants in
the country, such as the 98-megawatt (MW) Avion and 414-MW San Gabriel
gas plants of the Lopez Group and the three diesel plants—103-MW Mapalad Power
Corp. (MPC), the 100-MW Western Mindanao Power Corp. (WMPC) and the 55-MW
Southern Philippines Power Corp. (SPPC) — of the Alcantara group.
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